Slow cooked “Duck Afrique ” in the African bush……….

“Roast Duck Afrique”

Rules of procurement:

Buy green peppers, onions and oranges from the local market ladies, who need to send their children to school. These sun-ripened vegetables taste much better than supermarket varities anyway……

Grow every kind of chilli and herb you can think of, around your house.

Buy meat locally grown, organically reared by Zimbabwean producers.

Use Painted Wolf Wines, created by food lover and wine-maker extraordinaire, Jeremy Borg. His wines win awards and better still, each bottle sold results in spin-off funding for African wild dog conservation and research.

(The harvest has begun …..Jeremy has promised to keep us informed of progress during the very busy weeks ahead. He’s very excited about the quality of grapes this year and a new winemaker who has come on board – so things continue to head onwards and upwards for Painted Wolf Wines!!)

http://www.facebook.com/paintedwolfwines

Jeremy Borg's bicycle does service as he inspects the grapes.

Jeremy Borg’s bicycle does service as he inspects the grapes.

Method:

Clean and rinse the duck,

Simmer cracked wheat in water, till soft, to create a base for the stuffing.

Lin chops an onion in half to add to chicken stock in a saucepan, simmered with the duck’s neck to create a rich stock for the gravy. Throw in a whole chilli for flavour if you like….

Lin in the kitchen

Lin in the kitchen

Kelli finely chops green pepper, onion , one red chilli, heart, liver and gizzard for the stuffing.

Saute the chopped ingredients in a pat of butter.

Kelli chops....

Kelli chops….

Clive liberally salts and peppers the duck skin, after piercing it all over with a skewer for the fat to run out….

Clive salts....

Clive salts….

Kelli grates orange zest, to add to the cooked cracked wheat stuffing, together with the sauteed green pepper, onion, red chilli, heart, liver and gizzard. Season well.

Kelli grates.....

Kelli grates…..

Lin stuffs the duck, and Clive carves instant little skewers out of matchsticks to secure the skin.

Lin stuffs....

Lin stuffs….

The Cobb Cooker is hot, ready to barbeque roast the duck…baobab tree in the background.

Cobb cooker

Cobb cooker

Clive tenderly places the duck over the coals…closes and leaves for 2 hours.

roast time...

roast time…

We choose Pictus One 2009- a Painted Wolf Wine, to cook with and to drink.

Not good to use poor wines for cooking-use the best for the job!

Pictus One

Pictus One

Add Pictus One to the simmering gravy stock. Reduce to a rich gravy, adding cornflour paste as necessary to thicken.

a rich gravy

a rich gravy

Steamed vegetables add colour to the luncheon table, in our Tsavene house, on Senuko Wildlife Reserve, Save Valley Conservancy.

good food and great wine

good food and great wine

Clive pours and Adiel tastes ………

Adiel tastes....

Adiel tastes….

A Feast fit for a King.

a feast...

a feast…

Wild dog table napkins, hand-embroidered by local ladies.

African wild dog table napkin

African wild dog table napkin

Kelli, Clive and Pictus One.

Kelli, Clive and Pictus One

Kelli, Clive and Pictus One

Share the Love

16. Share the Love - lo res

 

Posted in Africa, African wild dogs, african wildlife, conservation, cooking, food, love, organic slow food, Save Valley Conservancy, Senuko, sharing, wine, zimbabwe | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

no baths in paradise……

What a paradise we live in, here at Senuko in the Save Valley Conservancy. Hyenas and lions have been regularly calling all night-I have Kelli with me in the bush and we drove home from a bush dinner a few nights ago through two groups of hyenas, one youngster coming so close to our car that we could see into his ears….

spotted hyena and cub

spotted hyena and cub

but there is a  downside -no electricity for two days now due to bad winds knocking down poles which are not fixed yet, and so no water is getting pumped to our hilltop house. The heavy rains and winds have knocked down trees in the neighbouring towns of Chiredzi and Triangle, school was closed monday after a large tree fell and  cut a classroom block in half, on a sunday morning when no children were sitting inside………..

Our generator is dead, so no back up power…we are cooking on fire and bathing in buckets, and only limited internet till inverter dies….sigh! It’s tough in paradise!…………..

ok, two days later…. Power is back on at our bush house, Tsavene, but still no water due to failure of water-pump on the flooding Mkwasine river-so we continue to bucket bath-which is fine, but yesterday afternoon a black mamba decided to try the bucket bath in Kelli’s bathroom…luckily she was not sharing the bucket at the same time…………………………….
Despite all hazards, such as snakes and raging rivers, this is still a safer environment to live in than downtown London,Miami, Houston or Cape Town!
Not that I did not LOVE living in those places, I love the contrast of buzzy city life, art exhibitions, food and theatre, with the wholly different but just as exciting bush life…..

Lions rumbling  and ground hornbills booming this morning at dawn……….
Kelli has decided to create a blog, going to be called Best of Both Worlds, can’t wait to read her stories……

Posted in Africa, african wildlife, art, birds, City Life, London, Miami, Rivers, Save Valley Conservancy, Senuko, Snakes, zimbabwe | Leave a comment

Chilo Gorge Gardens and the “snuff box” plant-Oncoba spinosa

Chilo Gardens are looking ever more lush, and our all-indigenous policy is paying dividends as the season progresses from drought conditions to intense rainstorms!

Oncoba spinosa flower and fruit

Oncoba spinosa flower and fruit

One of my favourite plants in bloom now, in front of our future dance arena, is Oncosa spinosa, the “Snuff box” plant.  A spiny shrub with exquisite white flowers, (sometimes commonly called the African dog rose), this also bears intriguing round fruits, “snuff boxes”, which are used to make beaded snuff boxes and leg rattles. Many other plants also function as leg rattles and snuff containers, such as gourds and African oranges, as seen in my photographs. How fitting that this stunning plants grows right in front of the area that we are clearing to create a dance and theatre floor for our local troubadours!

so many uses for the fruit of the "snuff box" plant....

so many uses for the fruit of the “snuff box” plant….

Green and gorgeous gardens………….

Chilo gardens-Oncoba spinosa in background

Chilo gardens-Oncoba spinosa in background

The future dance and theatre area will be an African version of Shakespearean “Theatre in the Round”-an open air experience not to be missed…can’t wait to hear the rattle of leg charms and the beat of hand-carved drums under an African sky.

the future dance /theatre area-African theatre in the making...

the future dance /theatre area-African theatre in the making…

Posted in Africa, African flora, art, Chilo Gorge, dance, eco-tourism, gardens and flowers, gonarezhou national park, safari, theatre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Hockney moment -in the gardens of Chilo Gorge lodge

One of my favourite paintings by David Hockney, is A Bigger Splash

Read on………..to find out why this is linked to Chilo Gorge’s pool!!

A Bigger Splash was painted in Califomia in the early summer of 1967. It is a record of a typical warm, sunny, cloudless day; from the position of the shadows cast by the eaves of the building and the chair, it appears to be midday when the sun is highest in the sky and the heat is most intense. The solitary figure, who has just dived into the pool, has been deliberately overwhelmed by the strength and composure of the rest of the composition. The hidden depths of this picture take longer to assimilate than its immediate joyful and decorative appeal…

1967; Acrylic on canvas, 242.5 x 243.9 cm (95 1/2 x 96 in)

Hockney-A Bigger Splash

Hockney-A Bigger Splash

 

Now to Chilo Gorge gardens…….

Chilo Pool-“A Splash!” is a photograph taken by me on an African summer’s day, sunny skies but rain clouds looming, and a not-so solitary figure has just dived into the pool, since behind the “Splash”, one can vaguely see another figure, an onlooker……

Chilo Pool-"A Splash!"

Chilo Pool-“A Splash!”

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For the Birds « 23thorns

 

Check out this fabulous blog, entertaining and really cool information on birds-  For the Birds « 23thorns. “Birders” can be twitchers-scary and crazily, totally obsessed with their hobby, but bird-watching is a different passion altogether….

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(69) Facebook

An understanding of predators in natural systems is so vital,

(69) Facebook.

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Christmas day and Wild dogs….

Woke up early Christmas morning and sat on our verandah, listening to the Woodland kingfishers. Suddenly there they were, 11 wild dogs trotting rapidly towards our waterhole, staring cautiously up at us as we sat, breathless, coffee cups poised. Relaxing, the dogs bunched up at the water hole and slurped happily. What a Christmas gift! The adults flopped down under mopani trees as the yearlings bounced and chased each other over and around a small termite hill.

yearlings playing

yearlings playing

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Kingsley Holgate’s Boundless Southern Africa Expedition

 

Centre Pan, Gonarezhou

Centre Pan, Gonarezhou

Kingsley Holgate and  Clive discuss the routememories from the past…. the “Talking Stick” in Gonarezhou:

Kingsley Holgate’s Boundless Southern Africa Expedition.

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Visit Zimbabwe: The Save Valley Conservancy and Gonarezhou National Park | Simbabwe Reisetipps | Reiseberichte / Reisetipps

Visit Zimbabwe: The Save Valley Conservancy and Gonarezhou National Park | Simbabwe Reisetipps | Reiseberichte / Reisetipps.

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Festive Season……..

email greetings 2012

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